National Library, Tehran - 1970

In designing the National Library of Tehran, with a stipulated gross built-up area of over 100,000 sq.m., use of today's technology was made, while relating strongly to the Safavit tradition, using space to create a convincing "public place".

The site is designed as a piazza, where pedestrian flow is uninterrupted. The scale of the piazza is determined by its cover, the library, which floats above it at a height of 24 meters. This double-volume floor houses the research library with an area of 20,000 sq.m. A central interior street 200 m. long, with various public functions, serves four libraries on either side. Each library is an entity in itself, with open patio/void, through which natural light filters. Access from piazza level to the library is via transparent escalators and lifts. Books are distributed to each library via pater noster located in the structural piers that rise from the stack floors in the basement.